Soc, Her, Pol: "What, me, migrate?" - A profile of Dadi Leela

[Nadeem Jamali <jamali@CS.UIUC.EDU>]

Friends,

I saw the following interesting article about Dadi Leela on another
mailing list.

Posted by: Maqbool Khan Aliani <maliani@fecrc.com>

Profile

Dadi Leela

What, me, migrate?

By Momin Bullo


For orthodox Hindus, there is no better fate than to have one's ashes
scattered in the Ganges. Not so for Leelawati Harchandani. When the
octogenarian Sindhi social worker, teacher and (yes) Hindu popularly
known as Dadi Leela fell ill last year while visiting the ashram of
her mentor in Pune, India, she immediately headed for the airport to
fly back to Pakistan. And when she reached her home city of Hyderabad,
she spent the whole night saying prayers of thanks.

While Dadi Leela is still fortunately with us, her plans for her
funeral have not changed.

"I want to die here in Sindh," she says. "It is my will that my ashes
should float in the river Indus rather than the Jamna or Ganga rivers
of India. My life and death is with this country."

Born in Heerabad, a suburb of Hyderabad, the young Leelawati received
her primary schooling from Noor Mohammad School. In the absence of a
separate school for girls, it was the only institution in Hyderabad in
those days where male and female students could jointly study. Besides
her, only three other girls were enrolled in the entire
school. Similarly, in order to do her intermediate, she again had to
secure admission in the government college, Kari Mori, which was only
a college for male students.

After her college education, she joined Hyderabad's famed Training
College for Women as the music instructor. She, herself, had started
playing the harmonium when she was only eight years old.  The early
exposure to music was only natural though, as her parents were among
the best singers of the time. But despite that, her parents never
allowed her to perform on either radio or the stage because they
considered it against their traditions.

The one time she broke that rule was when she accompanied her school
team to Karachi Radio and recorded a song.  Leelawati's melodious
voice, however, impressed the radio management to such an extent that
some of its senior staffers visited her house and tried to persuade
her father to allow her to perform again. Despite all their pleading,
her father remained unyielding and refused to allow her to perform on
the radio.

Still, Leelawati remembers her father fondly. "He never stopped us
from what we wanted at home or on the school premises," she says. And
while Leelawati herself was prevented from singing in public, she
nurtured and taught a number of famous women singers during her tenure
as a music teacher including Zarina Baloch (wife of Rasool Bakhsh
Palijo), Rubina Qureshi (wife of Mustafa Qureshi) Amna and several
others.

After Partition, like other parts of Sindh, Hyderabad too became
deserted with the mass-migration of Hindus to India.  The field of
education, in particular, was affected by the departure of many
teachers, and the famous educational institutions of Hyderabad began
to wear an abandoned look.

Leelawati, who was still serving as a music teacher in the Training
College for Women, was undecided whether to join the exodus to India
or to stay back in Sindh. Instead, she sought the guidance of her
mentor Sadhu T.L Waswani, a known educator and the founder of Meera
High School of Heerabad.

"Sadhu Waswani told me, Leelawati, don't worry, stay here!" remembers
Dadi Leela. And he then went beyond offering moral support. When
Leelawati told him that she could not stay in Hyderabad without his
financial support, he instantly gifted her a three-story house to
encourage her to live in Sindh.

When she shifted to her new house, where she still lives today, she
was threatened by the new migrants from India who demanded that she
vacate her house. Armed with nothing but her courage, Dadi Leela
overcame all her difficulties single-handed.

"They used to come in mobs and storm my house every morning," recalls
Dadi. "I always went to the door and after opening it, when I stood
before them and saw them, they would all go away, one by one."

Given the shortage of women teachers, and the young Leelawati's
qualifications, the result was that she got quick promotions in the
service and soon began to serve in every nook and cranny of the
province. In particular, while posted as a school inspector, she
walked all over the province and worked as a missionary to bring the
rural women to schools.  Taking the task as the challenge of her life,
she devoted several summers and spent large amounts from her own
pocket in aid of her cause.

Convincing the people of interior Sindh to send their daughters to
school was practically an impossible task at that time.  But when all
of her efforts failed, she took to addressing the Sindhis in their own
tongue. She composed a large number of songs containing the lessons of
awareness and performed them in villages.

She still recalls one song which became a hit with the women of rural Sindh:

"Aiy Sindhoo Jee Sugharr Siyani Tunhunjay Honday Cho Sindh Waigani?
Toon ta Nazo Ada Kan Niyari Toon ta Beshak Ahein Noory Nimani.
Tunhunjay Radh Pacha Mein Ras Ah, Tunhunjay Doey Main Kedo Na Das Ah
He waqt Athy Hoshiyar thee Haistaieen To Kaido Satho Ah
Ain Jihalat Jay Jin Khay Bhaja Toon"

Roughly translated, the song reads as follows:

Oh, the daughters of Sindh, in your presence, why does Sindh feel lonely?
You are above all the worldly beauties and undoubtedly you are a Noori.
Your cooking is full of taste
The way you cook speaks volumes.
It is time to escape from your unending agony
Come on, throw away the ghost of ignorance.

Along with her task of introducing education to the village, she took
it upon herself to update the villagers on other issues as well.

"One fine day," recalls Dadi Leela, "I was sitting in a crowd of women
in a village when an airplane passed across with great noise. All the
women sitting around me ran inside the house by saying the ghost has
arrived. I asked them where is the ghost? They replied that haven't
you heard that thunder. I, then laughed and told them that it was not
a ghost but an airplane, which is the fastest way of travelling from
one place to an other."

Not surprisingly, her fame as a educator spread far and wide and it
was at this time that the villagers amongst whom she had spent the
best par of her life, dubbed her "Dadi Leela" in respect for
endeavours.

After her retirement in 1975 as Deputy Director Colleges, Hyderabad,
Dadi Leela has carried out her mission of uplifting the status of
women with renewed vigour and spirit by founding an NGO to deal with
women's issues.

"I don't believe in a society which has customs like 'Karo Kari' or
'Haq Bakhshish'", she says angrily in response to question about how
women can be safeguarded against such traditions. "All these ugly
rites are the product of an illiterate society. Provide education to
people and then see how they turn against all these stupid and inhuman
customs of so-called honour."

In 1985, she took her struggle to a new level when she was nominated
as an MPA on a special seat for women in the 1985 elections. Despite
no prior political experience, she did full justice to her assignment
and added to her legend. A few years later during the late 80s when
all of Sindh was aflame in ethnic riots, Dadi Leela was in grave
danger as a Sindhi-speaking Hindu lady living in a Mohajir dominated
area. Once again, she refused to run away from danger and once again
her confidence in her neighbours was justified as no harm came or was
even threatened to her.

"They were all known to me," she explains. "The present generation of
Mohajirs has grown up in my hands. They knew that I was a harmless
creature. Even today all their people, including the women, who don't
have access to the banks keep their money and other valuables with me
because they know that their amanats will not be mismanaged," says
Dadi.

Now approaching her eighth decade of social service, Dadi Leela is
still going strong and still teaching. And if there is one lesson that
we can all learn from her life, it is that patriotism should be
measured not by one's religion but by one's deeds. When her time
comes, the Indus will be honoured to carry her ashes.